William and Kate vow to return to 'beautiful' Canada

Will and Kate arrive at the Lake Louise Lodge on Thursday July 7, 2011 prior to their departure for several events in Calgary Thursday and Friday.

Photograph by: Robert Remington
, Calgary Herald

CALGARY — With Calgary's trademark crown — a white cowboy hat —perched atop his head, Prince William delivered his final speech of the cross-country tour, assuring Canadians that he and Catherine will be back to experience more of "this beautiful country."

"In 1939, my great grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, said of her first tour of Canada with her husband, King George VI: 'Canada made us.' Catherine and I now know very well what she meant. Canada has far surpassed all that we were promised. Our promise to Canada is that we shall return," William said.

Before the royal farewell, Prime Minister Stephen Harper presented the royal couple with a gift on behalf of Canadians — albeit one they won't have to pack away when they embark on their first official trip to the U.S. on Friday.

"To mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of Parks Canada, we will create the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's Parks Canada Youth Ambassadors Program," a cowboy hat-clad Harper announced.

"Under this program, two young Canadians will be appointed to tour lands administered by Parks Canada. There they will meet with young people and use social media to promote our magnificent national parks, and share their experiences of them every year to promote our magnificent national parks among Canadian and foreign visitors alike."

Harper noted that as the royal couple crossed the country on their first official visit to Canada, they "left a trail of utterly charmed Canadians" in their wake.

William said that the couple's tour "exceeded all our expectations" and that he and Kate "have been hugely struck by the diversity of this beautiful country."

"Canada has extraordinary potential. With its natural resources, thriving economy, and rich human capital, it will surely be one of the great countries of the 21st century," he added.

Before the formalities, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge enjoyed the Stampede spirit Thursday evening as they ditched their royal attire in favour of jeans and boots and climbed into a stagecoach for the evening's Western-themed festivities.

Both sported the city's iconic white cowboy hats, and Kate wore her own jeans and a blouse by Alice Temperley while the prince looked more wrangler than regal with rolled up shirtsleeves and jeans.

Earlier, the couple had disappointed the throngs of fans that turned out to greet them at the wind-whipped Calgary airport, where they accepted the ceremonial white Smithbilt hats presented to them by Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi, but opted not to try them on.

Nenshi presented the hats brim-side up. William held the hats and eventually handed them to an aide.

"It's not upside-down — that's the way you store it," Nenshi said after the couple left in a 12-vehicle motorcade. "But what I said is although it looks empty, we filled it with our good wishes, and I hope that they will further fill it with great memories of Calgary."

Among the well-wishers at the airport was six-year-old Diamond Marshall, who was invited as part of the Children's Wish Foundation of Canada.

Clutching a bouquet of red flowers, the young girl, diagnosed earlier this year with stage-four undifferentiated sarcoma, proved to be a crowd favourite when she ran toward the Duchess and gave her a hug. Kate, wearing a primrose silk crepe dress and nude heels, knelt down and hugged her back.

Marshall's wish was to meet a real princess, after watching Will and Kate's wedding from her bed at the Alberta Children's Hospital.

Meanwhile, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge had the chance to get in touch with their scientific sides at a tour of a leading Calgary health research and innovation centre — their first stop in the city after touching down at the airport.

There, Will and Kate met "Stan", a high-tech dummy that mimics a real-life patient. PhD student Nicole Percival invited the prince to feel the patient's pulse while Kate looked on.

Stan's "heart" suddenly stopped, and Will was invited to resuscitate the patient with a defibrillator.

Kate helped to remove Stan's shirt, so Will could place the defibrillator pads on the dummy's chest. The duke performed chest compressions, bringing Stan to life a few moments later.

After asking what happened, Stan said, "Thank you for saving me, your royal highness."

The couple attended a reception Thursday evening with Harper, where they took part in a bull-riding demonstration, and were scheduled to watch a performance by country artist Paul Brandt, accompanied by the Stampede's Young Canadians dancers.

On Friday, the Duke and Duchess will travel by car along the Stampede parade route in reverse. Then they'll start the parade by pushing a "plunger" to begin a fireworks display.

William and Kate's arrival by helicopter in Calgary came on the heels of a backwoods escape in Lake Louise, Alta., where they spent two hours in a lodge after a short trip by helicopter from Skoki Lodge, where they spent the night Wednesday.

They changed clothes and freshened up in a lodge used for executive accommodation at the ski resort.

On departure, Kate was dressed in a bright yellow dress and William in a blue suit.

"My heart was racing so fast," said Rebecca Graf, visiting the Rockies from Ohio. "I hope they peek back out again."

"Maybe they'll come out on the balcony and kiss," one man said.

The royal couple flew to the mountains west of Calgary late Wednesday afternoon, having spent several hours earlier in the day visiting Slave Lake, Alta., one-third of which was levelled by a forest fire in May.

"It was all under the radar, incredibly cloaked from the top down," said Kurt Schroder, a spokesman for the Banff-Lake Louise Tourism Bureau, which issued a news release touting the royal visit as "a new royal legacy" for the historic lodge.

Although the tourism bureau still had no official confirmation from the royal tour about Skoki, Schroder said they pieced the information together from several sources, including "our partners in the tourism industry."

The lodge, built in 1931 and a designated historic site, is owned and operated by Charlie Locke's Lake Louise Ski Area under a lease from Parks Canada.

"We just connected the dots through umpteen channels, like squirrels on the ground," said Schroder. "Like everyone else, we were following their movements yesterday from Slave Lake and from one tarmac to another. We knew they were not coming to Banff, so we suspected everywhere, from the Chateau Lake Louise to Lake O'Hara Lodge. We thought they might dip into B.C., but we're just glad they chose a place within Banff National Park."

Skoki Lodge was the first facility built specifically to cater to ski tourists on a commercial basis in Canada, and possibly in North America, according to the tourism bureau. The log structure was built by a group of Banff residents who formed the Ski Club of the Canadian Rockies to manage the operation. Several log cabins were added between l935 and 1936 by Jim Boyce, a tour guide and outfitter.

Skoki is normally accessible only on foot via a four-hour hike from the Lake Louise Ski Area, with seven of the 11 kilometres uphill.

Schroder believes William and Kate were helicoptered directly to the site.

The rustic lodge is equipped with outhouses, but for the royal visit, an indoor bathroom was built to adjoin the cabin where William and Kate stayed.